Reed Hastings is a tech entrepreneur, a billionaire, and founder of Netflix. He is determined to replace public schools with charter schools. He served for a time as president of the state board of education in California. He has donated millions of dollars to the California Charter Schools Association. He was a founder of Rocketship, the charter that places poor kids in front of computers for hours each day and hires TFA to teach them in large classes, but skips the arts. He funds campaigns of charter champions like Nick Melvoin. He recently funded Antonio Villaraigosa for Governor and Marshall Tuck for State Superintendent of Instruction, both of them are part of the charter cabal.
He famously declared his opposition to the very existence of elected school boards.
Why does Reed Hastings hate public schools? Read the linked article and see if you can answer these questions.
Is it because he loves disruption? Does he hate democracy? Does he think schools are akin to tech start ups?
What do you think?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I’m just gonna go straight there and say it’s because he is a clueless ultrawealthy white guy with a massive ego and sense of entitlement to match, that he see’s the same “business opportunities” that others in the rent seeking donor class see, profiting by being a parasite on public systems and individual citizens being his primary strategy and ideology. Facts and reality get thrown under the bus in his one man stampede for even more,power and wealth. For him, it’s absolutely NOT about the kids or an educated nation runcitizens with full agency.
“operated on behalf of citizens with full policial agency.” bleeping tablet….
YES. The tax money set aside to be used for education by both the federal and state governments is truly massive: ultrawealthy “businessmen” know exactly why working with/for the “kids” has such a seductive smell.
Frankly, I don’t give a rat’s patoot why. I’m not in his head (thank g-d), so I don’t know what he loves or hates. All I care about are his actions and the results thereof. And stopping him and his ilk.
If you truly wish to stop this man’s agenda, and prevail, then you should heed this advice:
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Charles stop writing the same things over and over. All future repeats will be deleted.
No, Charles, knowing why Hastings does what he does is a red herring. It just leads us down the rabbit hole of whether or not he has “good intentions”. His intentions don’t matter. His actions do.
Actually Diane I don’t remember hearing this quote from Charles before, and I like it. I think it helps to tease out one’s enemy’s motivations, as you suggest in the title to your post.
I have read all of Charles’ tweets and I try to delete the ones he posted several times before.
Diane’s right, bethree, he’s posted it dozens of times before (and that’s not counting however many times Diane has deleted it before).
I have a twitter account. I have not posted any tweets for some months. Maybe someone is “spoofing” my account. Thanks for the heads-up.
Why are more and more people doing their own taxes with the help of Turbo Tax? Why do the majority of airport travelers check in at kiosks rather than with a human ticket agent? Cars can practically drive themselves today. Technology, technology, technology. Replacing the human element with technology. This is driving changes in all sorts of industries in the US, including education. It’s happening everywhere. I’m not sure he necessarily hates education, but rather supports a greater educational influence from technology rather than from people/educators. As one of my college students stated last semester, “We are seeing a society emerge where everything can be done through an app.” We are evolving. For the better? That remains to be seen.
“We live in a world, in which the only constant is change” – Heraclitus, Greek philosopher.
Wow, you’re on a roll with the cliches and banalities today, aren’t you?
If Charles stopping repeating himself, he would respond far less frequently.
“He may look like an idiot and talk like an idiot, but don’t let that fool you. He really is an idiot.” — Groucho Marx, American intellectual
We live in a world where blog responders turn profound quotes into Hallmark Greeting Card tripe…
Picturing a sci-fi fantasy world where computers do everything and people do nothing might be fun for people like Reed Hastings, but technophilia disorder does not explain why Hastings treats his white collar workers so much better than his blue collar workers. It doesn’t explain why he wants to eliminate the power of voting for blue collar workers. It doesn’t explain why he doesn’t care if class sizes explode for the children of blue collar labor. There’s only one explanation for all that, and it is not love of apps. What Reed Hastings supports is oppression, and the only things that cause it are greed and pure hate.
There are some things that technology cannot do, some human activities that technology cannot duplicate or replace. Filling in forms, which is all that most of your examples are of is not replacing the human element with technology, it’s just data entry, not complex at all. The self driving cars thing is stalled out, and like humans, just killed someone.
In the case of tax prep, technology is offering services to middle/wkg class that were previously unaffordable (only available via hired consultant). My son, a free-lance musician/ audio type, learned w/me step-by-step how to do his complex taxes for a couple of years, & has since found free online programs that do it for him. He couldn’t have selected them w/o what he learned from me (& from self-help tax books)– & I only know what I know from yrs filing taxes as a 2-family-house owner/ landlord & self-employed free-lancer during yrs when I could not afford an accountant.
RE: online airport check-in, that’s a direct result of time-consuming 9/11 security extending the old 1-1/4hr procedure to 2 hrs: w/o online check-in, travellers would have to show up nearly 3 hrs ahead… And self-driving cars/trucks will not be so quick to come judging from fatal crashes in the news
All the other apps I see my 20-somethings use are either time-savers [notes/ calendars, / alarms, GPS that routes around traffic jams] or social enhancers allowing them to get together/ find each other at events/ get home safely after drinking [Uber].
RE: education?? So far, computerized learning is a big fail vs human-interactive teaching. IMHO, reports on the death of human interaction are exaggerated.
My computer crashed last week. Fortunately, I have a tech savvy husband who put
Haha speduktr… Hope yr hubby was able to repair!
I lost my entire hard-drive twice over the last 4 yrs.. Learned much… that my deathless journal prose is just so much yammering into the ether & belongs there… & realized that my lesson-planning is an active process that benefits from current teaching stimulus & gains not so much from seeing what I did a couple of years ago….
It is a common sense, a reality and a scientific knowledge that WATER and OIL cannot mix and blend as ONE SOLUTION.
Yes, we are people and we need water.
Yes, robots are machines and machines need oil.
People create machine. People are compose of body, mind and spirit.
Machines SERVE people – BUT NEVER TO CREATE people!!!
In short, all corrupted corporate leaders will eventually learn their lessons about the true meaning of HUMANITY, KINDNESS and COMPASSION through companionship in their old age. Currently, corrupted people are healthy enough and young enough to fiercely abuse their wealth and to harm others intentionally. Consequently, the permanent CAUSAL LAW of cause and effect will catch them up sooner or later.
Towards the last paragraph of the link “Why does Reed Hastings hate public schools?”, Brett Bymaster, a Silicon Valley electrical engineer has concluded his thought that we will agree with him. Back2basic
[start his thought]
“I have been through several successful Silicon Valley start-ups. I am as techy as they come,” says Bymaster. “But ultimately the problems in our schools are people problems. Technology doesn’t solve people problems. People solve people problems.”
[end his thought]
I have to respectfully disagree with you, m4potw, at least in some instances, when you wrote, “In short, all corrupted corporate leaders will eventually learn their lessons about the true meaning of HUMANITY, KINDNESS and COMPASSION through companionship in their old age.”
Now, I’d love to believe that too and I’ve seen evidence of it throughout my life. However, examples like Eli Broad, Rupert Murdoch and the Koch Brothers are unfortunately walking rebuttals to your noble and optimistic viewpoint.
With Reed Hastings, it appears to be all about arrogance. Like so many of these newly minted tech billionaires, as brilliant as he may be in some ways—like knowing how to make a lot of money—he obtusely assumes that this means he’s an expert at everything else, including education. And he’s entirely wrong on that one.
Hi Puget Sound Parent:
Thanks for your feedback.
IMHO, it is nothing about a religious belief, or something wrong with the nature of the Causal Law.
Truthfully, whenever people live long enough PLUS have gone through a/many life and death situation(s), and have paid attention in order to reflect their miraculous survival(s), they would realize that there is something beyond a logical reason which they must use the third dimension – a spiritual world – where some INVISIBLE force (= their good or bad Karma) saves them in a nick of time.
In short, it is something that either you instinctively know the Causal Law or you just do not get it because you do not have your own experience with life; or do not pay attention through observation of a surrounding; or do not believe in all events in history or in the current society.
I do not know whether people are lucky or unlucky to ignore the PERMANENT CAUSAL LAW. For me, it is my nature to recognize the wisdom of “good deed returns good deed, and evil follows evil”. Back2basic.
“When tech industry leaders like Reed Hastings call for an elimination of school boards or for more privatization of public schools, they block low-income people from using the one instrument that the powerful can’t ignore – their vote.”
Arrogant tech giants like Hastings make their proclamations from the billionaire bubble. They use their wealth to gain access to our young people and use them as guinea pigs for their next grand idea. Whether their “big” idea has merit or not is not given careful consideration. These entrepreneurs get an assumed acceptance because they have money. Just because someone was a “teacher” in the Peace Corps does not make someone an education expert. These tech moguls are starting with the assumption that more technology is better, and this assumption has never been proven. They are not starting with the needs of students which is where an authentic educator would start.
Obviously, Hastings never learned to share, a lesson he should have learned in kindergarten. He does not pay his rank and file workers a decent wage for the work they do. Hastings believes that billionaires should have more rights than other Americans. Hastings is out of touch.
We can thank Bill Clinton and his neoliberal cronies for our current state of miseducation. Innovation without understanding is no innovation at all.
” He does not pay his rank and file workers a decent wage for the work they do. ”
It really hit me when the article disclosed the family leave policy. This guy has no concern for the welfare of his own workers. How can we possibly believe that he actually cares about the welfare of students. He champions a system of education that may produce worker bees for his low paying jobs, but it certainly won’t prepare them to be more than a drone. Add on top of his own work policies his call for an end to democratically elected school boards and this guy begins to sound seriously dangerous. What is it about wealth that makes people think the rest of us should bend to there will/whims?
“What is it about wealth that makes people think the rest of us should bend to there will/whims?”
It is only our laws that make it possible. There will always be fatuous rich people who ‘know’ what’s best for the little folk, & most of their plans will involve fattening their own wallets.
STEP ONE at the very minimum is campaign reform, i.e., publically [tax]-supported elections at every level, no other source of funding allowed. That will breed municipal, state, and federal representatives who answer only to their constituents.
Other measures are implicit: no more PACS & super-PACS, reform of 501c(3)&(4) laws, etc.
**I’m not in his head **
If all forms of divination are rejected: , conjuring up the dead
(the founding “fathers” meant), the phenomena of clairvoyance,
(Johnny acts this way because…) would “experts” be out of “bid-ness”?
Could they continue to “pitch” finite values for infinity, as if thoughts or
behaviors ARE limited to the “experts” understanding of them.
Self-test…How many thoughts do you have? How about behaviors?
Monomania, megalomania, arrogance and narcissism on steroids. These billionaires have as much wealth and power as emperors, tsars and kings.
Because he’s a disruptive innovator with a heart ‘a gold- wants only the best for us.
Meanwhile the teachers and other public school employees you know who live in your communities and actually work with your kids? They’re greedy “incumbents” who protect the “status quo”
The absolute pass these people get based solely on their bank accounts is just appalling.
They’re good because they’re rich.That’s the extent of the analysis. He could submit a financial statement and pass this vetting process.
Yes, good points. When Christie was governor of NJ, he would spew his venomous diatribes about the supposed greed and selfishness of those unionized teachers who didn’t care about the kids. Thank goodness he’s gone from the governorship. It’s such a relief to have a governor who does not rail against the teachers and the real public schools.
It’s not even the first time this has happened in the US. A hundred years ago West Virginia decided coal barons should run public education. It’s hilarious to read the stuff that came out of it. The school exit exams were all about the coal industry.
It’s really not Reed Hastings fault. It’s the fault of lawmakers who have completely abdicated their duties to the last rich person who shows up with some clever slogans and millions of dollars.
Why do they even want these jobs, our politicians? Let’s just appoint the 150 wealthiest people and turn it over to them. Cut out the middleman.
We really do need public financing of elections with no wiggle room for under the table financial support. No self funded campaigns. No super pacs. I do wonder how we deal with the job promises from lobbyists offered to legislators after their terms are over. I’m sure there are those who have some ideas to cover that issue.
If, as you say, we can get all private money out of both the political and electoral systems, kill the gerrymander, quash all electioneering from anyone other than the actual candidate, and make the meetings that politicians have with all lobbyists be on the record, we might be able to attract people who, like teachers, have an authentic interest in public service to jobs in out legislatures rather than those with malformed egos who lust after power for it’s own sake. We should try to make a life in politics a career worth having for almost entirely intrinsic reasons. We’re talking about a cultural shift here, a long and heavy lift, but I see no other way. Politics may well be the one place where an effort to legislate and enforce morality and ethics needs to be done.
Our political system needs to be reformed, not our schools. We have to get the money out of politics in order for the system to work.
RIGHT ON! This is where our focus needs to be. Education is just one segment of all public goods that effect voters’ daily quality of life– for which they would gladly vote– if they could just find candidates who not only promised to support public goods during campaigns– but who also could deliver because they weren’t encumbered by deep-pockets campaign donors pulling in the opposite direction! Campaign reform — campaigns supported by equivalent proportionsof taxes — is the way to go.
I am conservative on most topics. I break ranks with conservatives on public financing of campaigns. I am 100% for it. Former V-P Biden, pushed (quietly) for public financing for many years. Bravo.
Hastings: “I started… trying to figure out why our education is lagging when our technology is increasing at great rates and there’s great innovation in so many other areas—health care, biotech, information technology, moviemaking… Why not education?”
This is like saying “The innovation and variety of fresh-baked breads increases constantly… Why are we still stuck with the same boring combo of flour/ yeast/ water/ sugar/ salt/ fat?”
Your analogy is false. Bread is composed of various components. The basic process was invented by the ancient Egyptians. (They also invented beer, God love them!).
Many aspects of modern life, are the result of innovation. Education, since it is primarily a government operation, typically lags behind what the private sector can accomplish.
Analogy: The US Postal Service would never have initiated overnight package delivery. The government never saw a need, and with no demand, there was no desire to implement such a service.
The developer of FedEx, received a “C” grade on the hypothetical business in his class. No one saw the need for a service of this nature.
What everyone, including the government failed to see, was the beginning of the computer industry. All of a sudden there was a need for one motherboard, or one printout, or one floppy-disk. And computer users were willing to pay a premium for overnight delivery. Fed Ex is now a multi-billion dollar enterprise. Conventional wisdom said it would fail.
Educational bureaucrats, suffer from the same kind of tunnel vision. Governments and government-operated public schools are never an incubator of innovation. “We never did it that way before” is etched on the wall of every government office, and into the brains of every government bureaucrat.
Innovation only comes from the private sector.
“Education, since it is primarily a government operation, typically lags behind what the private sector can accomplish.”
Big bad gubmint schools!
Horse manure, Chas, horse manure!
@Duane: I was a federal employee for 12 years. Defense dept, state dept, commerce dept. And I have worked on government projects for many years.
“Government-think”: stifles innovation. New ideas are shot down so often, that I just stopped making suggestions to the supervisors. The way to progress in government work, is to not “make waves”.
You should view the film “And the band played on”, to get a glimpse of how the government fouled up, and totally fumbled in the early years of the AIDS crisis. It is a good “capsule” of how government operates.
Right on, Charles. We don’t need government, do we? Let Erik Prince fight wars. Outsource everything. Do you know how many private businesses fail every year?
I have never said that “we don’t need government”. I am aware of the failure rate of private businesses. Some of the firms that I have worked for in the past are no longer in existence. I learned computer programming using punch-cards. Punch cards are obsolete, and the firms that produced them are either gone, or have turned to other pursuits.
On the other hand, government programs that do not produce, or fail, just keep on truckin’. When a government program fails to deliver (ex: Obamacare), the answer is just to spend more money on it.
The War on Poverty is lost, and it is an utter, dismal failure. But it just keeps on truckin’. The war on drugs is one of the biggest catastrophes ever devised by the mind of government. It failed to stanch (significantly) Americans’ voracious appetite for drugs.
The current total and absolutely hopeless government response to the opiod crisis, is like AIDS chapter two.
“When will they ever learn” – From a popular song, “Where have all the flowers gone?”
“On the other hand, government programs that do not produce, or fail, just keep on truckin’. When a government program fails to deliver (ex: Obamacare), the answer is just to spend more money on it.”
Obamacare didn’t fail so much as it was sabotaged. Where it was fully implemented, it had some success. Heck, it worked in Massachusetts under Romney. I still view as a stop gap until we are ready to admit that everyone has a right to healthcare that isn’t dependent on the size of your bank account.when I was in the midst of fighting cancer, I read Barbara Ehrenreich’s book, Nickled and Dimed. While work was my salvation (teaching) I had to work in order to afford health insurance. No one leading the life Ehrenreich led for a short while would have had the care I had even if they qualified for Medicaid. When my husband was self employed and I was only working part time as a substitute teacher, we used medical care as seldom as possible. No healthcare providers give individually insured people a break. The one hospital stay I had took a long time to pay off. We paid full freight. No deals with the insurance company. How stupid to dismantle a system that helped so many more without putting something else in place. The same can be said for the war on poverty and drugs. Take what worked and build on it. Try new things. There is a lot that has worked well with public education. There is no earthly reason to destroy it, especially based on a false reformer narrative.
I stand by my analogy, Charles. Here’s another. Hastings’ happy list ( “our technology is increasing at great rates and there’s great innovation in so many other areas– health care, biotech, information technology, moviemaking…”) — Golden eggs– all flow from successful educational process– Goose. To expand the good fortune, do you try raising the goose on less food, in a desert instead of on the farm, expect to get golden eggs from a robot version, pay others to raise the goslings any old which way?
The ancient Egyptians invented baking bread with yeast. They also invented the recipe for beer, God love them.
“I’m not good at following orders,” said Hastings… “There were no rules at all [in the Peace Corps]. Just use your initiative.” Hastings’ total teaching experience is 2 yrs’ teaching math in Swaziland in Peace Corps [“Just use your initiative”] – after which he obtained an MS in Computer Science. After business experience (a dozen yrs later) he spent 1-2 yrs studying at Stanford Grad Sch of Ed – but no more teaching.
When you start out teaching, your only intimate knowledge of learning is how you yourself learned. As a novice world-language hisch teacher, I leaned into pedagogical methods that reflected what had worked best for me. I was a great teacher for kids like me — verbal types, easily imitative of sounds, lovers of literature. I was mediocre as a teacher of those who learned differently from me.
I took a long break, working in biz, then raising young kids. The latter began my education in understanding minds that worked differently from mine. I re-entered the profession at the PreK level, determined to develop pedagogy that would work for all different kinds of minds. And it took some years to achieve that.
Someone like Hastings has never gotten beyond pedagogical ideas hatched from his own “no-rules” style of learning – embellished by wherever his “own initiative” got him teaching in a foreign culture for his 1st 2 yrs out of college [did he learn anything? Did they?] Whatever he may have learned in post-grad ed studies remained theoretical. Add big bunches of $, what do you get? Pope: “A little learning is a dangerous thing;
drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
and drinking largely sobers us again.”